Troubled Waters

Bertil Lintner has been a keen observer of the Southeast Asian political landscape for many years.

- Shyam Saran

His deep understanding of the complex relationships that animate the region’s continuing transformation are evident in his books. He had explored the India-China relationship and the role of Tibet in his book China’s India War: Collision Course on the Roof of the World. Lintner returns to this relationship in his latest offering, The Costliest Pearl: China’s Struggle for India’s Ocean. While the earlier volume focused on the land frontiers of the two countries, the current volume looks at their maritime contestation. The ‘Costliest Pearl’ in the title takes us back to the year 2005 when, for the first time in Washington, the concept of a ‘String of Pearls’ was coined to describe Chinese intent to establish an arc of maritime bases, or naval facilities, stretching from the South China Sea islands, covering Myanmar, Sri Lanka and the Maldives and then moving west to Pakistan, the Gulf and the east coast of Africa. India was not originally described as the target. The argument was used as a plea to maintain US naval presence in the ocean space to check Chinese ambitions. India is concerned because the ‘string’ also appears as a noose around the Indian peninsula. Lintner’s use of the phrase ‘India’s Ocean’ recognises the primary role of India in the maritime space around its peninsula. But a Chinese admiral not long ago asserted that the Indian Ocean is not India’s ocean.